Microsoft & Nokia Redux

P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm; }A:link { } A year ago I wrote that Microsoft’s purchase of Nokia looked “like it was intended to guarantee that at least one major manufacturer in the world would be producing phones based on Microsoft’s software”. Well since that time a lot has happened. Steve Ballmer has been replaced by Satya Nadella as Microsoft CEO. Microsoft has acquired Nokia's handset business, turning the once proud jewel...

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The Mobile Platform

It is undeniable that the mobile platform has become and will continue to be an important part of business. But more than that, mobile platforms have become a standard of living for younger generations. Recently, Rick and I had a conversation about the importance of smartphones. Rick argued that mobile devices had become so important because younger people are constantly “on the go.” Young people tend to work more jobs, travel as often as they...

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Microsoft & Nokia

September 11, 2013 The best phone I ever had was a Nokia 6120. It wasn’t smart, it didn’t text, it was just a dual band (analogue/digital) and had an incredible standby of 14 days and talk of 3.5 hours. Considering that my previous phone was a Mitsubishi that had just 15 minutes of talk time, about 6 hours of standby and weighed 225 grams, the Nokia was a huge improvement. Over the next several years I had a variety of cells phones, but...

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The Reporting Hierarchy

Gbgsoft has evolved a reporting philosophy and developed supporting technologies that address the very real need for clients to retrieve and analyze their data. We call this the ‘Reporting Hierarchy’. Here are its precepts in order of importance: If it’s important, then it should be on the screen, accessible in a meaningful way. The best report is one which will never be printed. Business logic should be encapsulated in the base system...

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gbgsoft and the Open Source Model

Over the span of 15 years, gbgsoft has replaced its dependence on proprietary software where ever possible. We use Libre Office, not Microsoft Office; Thunderbird, not Outlook; and Firefox, not IE. The tool kits we use to make programs are all open-source under various licenses. Most open-source these days is platform agnostic. It will run under Windows, Mac, Linux. In fact we choose our tools precisely because they will work in all three platforms. “If...

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Our Process

We’ve had a lot of experience with different application needs and program eco-systems. Over that time, we’ve worked out a pretty fool proof way of doing our work. The software industry has a long history of creating the methodology ‘du jour’ and then giving it a fancy marketable moniker.  Notable are Agile, Xtreme, UML, the Grady Booth method, and  the Yourdon methodology. We couldn’t think of a catchy name, but there are several...

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